In an email on Tuesday, Peter T. Lavina, head of the Team Duterte’s media group, said the rally is projected to be the biggest political event in the history of the city, as he encouraged the Dabawenyos to come out and join in the rally to support Duterte’s candidacy.

In a text message to MindaNews, Rocky Balili, a political leader and member of the Run Rodrigo Duterte and Duterte Diehard Supporter (DDS)-Davao Region, said an estimated crowd of 35,000, including contingents coming from outside the city, will join the rally.

March 16 also marked the 79th founding anniversary of Davao City.

This will be the first time that Duterte will hold a rally in the city after the official start of the election campaign for national officials last February 9 where he held his opening salvo in Tondo, Manila simultaneous with provincial rallies nationwide.

The rally will be highlighted with “Kahayag sa Pagbag-o” where Dabawenyos are encouraged to light candles for Duterte who, with his running mate Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, has vowed to bring genuine change in the country.

Duterte and Cayetano will be present during the Duterte rally, Lavina said.

“Duterte has vowed to stop illegal drugs, criminality and corruption in the first three to six months of his term if he wins the presidency in the May national elections,” the press statement reads.

Duterte placed second in the March 1 to 6 presidential survey of the Pulse Asia with 24 percent while Sen. Grace Poe has retained her lead with 28 percent, according to reports.

Vice President Jejomar Binay, who got 21 percent, is statistically tied on third place with administration bet Manuel “Mar” Roxas II with 20 percent.

People, Choose wisely! Don’t let the “awa vote” dominates us! Be aware! Don’t let another 6 years to be wasted for some damn shit politicians who didn’t really deserve the position! Vote for candidate who is like have concern to our beloved fellow Filipinos. Taking care of us like his own children! I see those qualifications to DUTERTE-CAYETANO Tandem! I will not insist all of you to vite for them just vote and choose wisely! God bless us all.

IF THE PRESIDENCY IS A DEN OF THIEVES, A STRONG LEADER IS WHAT IS TRULY NEEDED

I’M NOT being cynical about what Liberal Party spokesperson Barry Gutierrez claims; but all throughout history, the presidency too can be an institution of criminally predisposed career thieves in the guise of public service.

HAVING been constitutionally vested with executive power, the president wields a two-edged sword to carry out his duties: first is the purse and then the muzzle of a gun to enforce obedience among the citizenry. The incumbent thus appoints both career and non-career government functionaries not only to implement governmental policies but to ensure that his marching orders get to reach the bottom of the ladder.

QUITE an abstraction may be, but, for the corps of bureaucrats in government, the chain of command begins at the apex of power. It’s what the TOP does that they follow. The no “wang-wang” policy is a case in point. During his inaugural address, Pres. BS Aquino slammed all forms of official entitlements so the public knows it can rely on its government officials to uphold the law because no one should be above it.

THAT’s literally the least that those mandated to govern can to do justice to every ordinary man -the “boss”, so to speak. in the biggest corporation ever invented by the State or otherwise known as the government. But the presidency can only be effective if it retains the persuasive power over the other co-equal branches. If it wants to roll on its desired policies, the executive department has to deal with the legislature.

IT’S the lawmakers’ legislative function to green-light budgetary appropriations, craft priority statutes and exercise oversight prerogatives over public agencies. In dealing with Congress, the president practically proposes but it is the former which stamps its authority. That’s where the president carries both sword and cake to influence legislation with something that policy-makers get in return. And the icing itself does the trick to pursue the president’s short and long-term vision.

UNDER the Marcosian regime, it was all to easy to get things done. There is the rubber-stamp assembly to take command from the supreme leader. The quasi-parliamentary system of government was even instituted to get rid of the vice-presidency. But things tuned from bad to worse when Pres. Cory Aquino assumed power under the guise of freedom and revolutionary government. Her short-lived prime minister, Salvador Laurel Jr., rebelled upon failed pledges and later led the opposition to expose the the rising tide of plunder and corruption in the newly-installed democratic government.

OUR concept of good government was prostituted. The icon of democracy could hardly push pro-people policies without Congress and the dynastic politicians who lorded over public policies. So Pres. Aquino had to reintroduce the long-moribund pork barrel politics in the country. Yes, folks, it was the incumbent president’s mother who gave her nod for the return of the greatest source of corruption ever to grace the benighted pearl of the orient sea. She had no choice; even her own presidency had to kowtow to Congress for funds like a slimy beggar with her begging bowl.

SO from the innocuous Countrywide Development Fund (CDF), the scourge of corruption metamorphosed itself into Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) and its presidential variant, the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP). Our lawmakers couldn’t be happier. They could dip their fingers into the public cookie jar aided no less by the president’s tacit approval. And when corruption reached its zenith, the pork barrel insertions into the national budget pie exploded right smack into their faces: all top branch officials and functionaries, including the judiciary which the budget magician, DBM Sec. Florencio Abad, saw fit to smear by snare.

TRUE, the office of the president is an institution to render genuine public service; but it is equally true as well that the presidency itself can be held hostage by both elective and career officials. In 2010, the country was held enthrall by a prospect of change coming, as it is, from the heels of the spurned corrupt regime under Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. So to cover its tracks, the BS Aquino administration’s legal juggernaut deployed highly caliber lawyers to man its flanks while advancing its thrusts and parries against the perceived corrupt in the ranks of the political opposition.

THE WITCHCRAFT and inquisition thus became a ploy to cover the president’s well-hidden pandora’s box while exposing the others to public light. So Gutierrez is right. The presidency is a much-aspired domain of service to the Filipino people. But if an awakened citizenry gets rid of its blindfold in the eyes, the presidency too is host to unspeakable anomalies that only shameless thieves can dare commit without batting an eyelash.

WHOEVER gets to sit the throne of the presidency, nothing will ever change in a rotten system, UNLESS the leader himself is STRONG and DETERMINED enough to pursue his VISIONS for the country and its people WITHOUT let up!